Distributed systems are highly-available, scalable systems that are utilized in various situations, including those situations that require a high-throughput of work or continuous or nearly continuous availability of the system.
A distributed system that has the capability of sharing resources is referred to as a cluster. A cluster includes operating system instances, which share resources and collaborate with each other to perform system tasks. While various cluster systems exist today (such as the RS/6000 SP system offered by International Business Machines Corporation), further enhancements to the existing cluster systems are still desired. For example, enhancements are desired to facilitate the administration of cluster systems.